A left-wing liberal commentator accuses the government of violating the rights of transgender individuals by proposing restrictions on changing one’s biological gender in official documents. A pro-government columnist thinks that the opposition is spreading conspiracy theories to weaken the government.

In a letter to the European Parliament, Gergely Gulyás, Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office wrote that the government’s proposed changes to the documentation on biological gender do not interfere with the rights of transgender individuals. Gulyás underscored that transgender individuals in Hungary can live and express their gender identity as they wish. The Hungarian government tabled the omnibus bill (see BudaPost April 6) that proposes that ‘sex’ in official documents means biological sex, and therefore cannot be changed even in the case of sex adjustment surgery.

Népszava’s Gábor Czene thinks that the government’s proposal to prevent the change of biological sex in IDs is in clear violation of the rights of transgender individuals. The left-wing commentator finds it peculiar that the government uses the coronavirus emergency to restrict the rights of transgender people in an omnibus bill. Czene recalls that 63 MEPs as well as transgender watchdog organizations called for the withdrawal of proposed legislation that, according to the critics, would severely limit the right of transgender individuals to freely express their identity.

Magyar Nemzet’s Ottó Gajdics, on the other hand, contends that sex reassignment surgery is part of the dogmatic ideology of liberals that rejects all traditional values and authority. The pro-government pundit believes that liberals want to destroy common sense norms in the name of enlightened rationality, unrestricted freedom and equality. Gajdics accuses left-wing liberal critics of the government of spreading conspiracy theories in their efforts to delegitimize the government, even if this entails spreading fake news on the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic and save lives.